Trudeau's "Miss South Carolina" moment and other debate "highlights"

Rebel Staff

Looking back on last night's Maclean's debate, the first thing that stood out were the comments I heard about the oil and gas industry. They were terrifying. Everyone except Stephen Harper seems determined to demonize the energy industry, and turn it into the moral equivalent of Big Tobacco.

But one highlight was how "shocked" everyone was when Stephen Harper said Canadians should show ID in order to vote. Most Canadians support that common sense proposition, so who were the other debaters trying to impress with their "outrageous outrage"? The press gallery?

Then there's Justin Trudeau's weakest and most embarrassing moment of the evening: no surprise, it came on the topic of foreign policy and national security.

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I think Terry Rudden needs a class in “Media Literacy 101”! What do you think? But, first he needs to take off the “rose-colored” glasses he wears when he reads the news! Or, if he just listens to it, perhaps he needs a filter between what his “ear” hears, and his auditory processing center in his brain.

I don’t get why all the left want another refinery in AB. We already have more then one and produce more gas then western Canada uses (we also supply crude to kittimat to that rifinery for the lower mainland). It’s a lot more dangerous to transport refined fuel products then crude and much more expensive. We would have issues trying to get rid of it to other markets. Kinda like Ontario and their over production of power that results in them selling it at a loss to whoever will take it.
Also a goverment oil refinery would be unable to compete with private companies… it woild end up getting subsidized which would cause more issues selling to the states (you cant subsidize a product under NAFTA without paying terrifs).
As a whole Canada produces more gas then we use…. so this new government rifinery pipedream is a losing government wish wash plan.

When asked about terrorism in Canada, The Justin replied:
“Uhhhmmmm ahhhh, I personally uhhmm, believe that uhmm some people in the ISIS don’t have maps so that they cannot find Canada on the map. Therefore the South Africa and such as……uhhhhmmmm, ahhhhh, can help the ISIS to become more like uhhhhmmmmm, ahhhhhh, such as uhhhmmmm the United Colors of Benneton such as…..”.

Please, oh wise ones, explain to me if you can why all the opposition parties dumped on the Conservatives for trying to balance the budget, claimed that we are in financial straits and then proceeded to say they each plan to spend billions on universal daycare(Mulcair) or an extra $2500.00 per family (child?) over and above what Harper has given out to families(Trudeau)…if Harper hasn’t been able to balance the budget to their liking with all his cost CUTS—-HOW ON EARTH are they going to do it with excessive spending? Please help me to understand the logic here!@#$%^&*????…or isn’t balancing the budget in their platform?…Oh yeah!…WE are going to have to pay for this…right…I forgot our taxes will have to go through the roof (Trudeau thinks the wealthiest taxpayers will pay for his scheme…doesn’t he know they will move their money offshore?)

William said, “The amoun t of energy required to do the conversion must come from somewhere.”

Ooh, ooh, I know. Let’s build lots and lots of solar panel farms and windmill farms to power the refinery so we can refine the oil! … … sorry, had a socialist moment there. It was quite scary. For that moment all my intellect drained from me and then all the socialist ideologies became perfectly clear to me. I saw fields and fields of pixie dust trees used to make money and candies and all sorts of socialist goodies! Wow! … … and then my intellect came back to me and I saw reality one again. Whew! That was a close one! So, that’s what it is like to live in leftie land!

PETERNETTERVILLE you forgot the most important reason that the oil can not be refined in Albert. The amoun t of energy required to do the conversion must come from somewhere. Right now it is coal fired hydro generators. They are switching to Gas fired generators. Now if they have Hydro from Manitoba they could build a cost effective refinery in Alberta. But they are considering Nuclear power plants so Sask is going to be happy.

Peter, keep in mind that NDP have claimed that they take issue with shipping bitumen by pipeline as its composition does not allow for a thorough clean up if pipeline is breached. They have implied that shipping refined oil by pipeline may be acceptable. But as I wrote before this is all a smoke screen as I do not see the NDP ever permitting the building of a refinery in Alberta.

Terry:
Interestingly, your question is much like the one Reporters use who like to push the stressed politician to make a quick judgment call – in order to meet a publishing deadline, or to direct the issue to the Reporter’s liking. Then the quick response gets published; the politician either supports what was said or is forever on the defensive; the public’s first knowledge of the issue is the quick response gleaned by the Reporter which the public rightly assumes to be correct. The media henceforth search for more data to support this “exclusive” news break, and are willingly or subconsciously blind to any dis-confirming evidence.

But this issue of media bias and/or unprofessionalism has to be carefully studied and understood if we want to influence it. A swallow does not a Summer make. Comments by individuals may be just that. This isn’t a quickie type of judgment. That’s why the whole election campaign needs to be assessed. Of course there will likely be examples of misrepresentation, falsifying data, ignoring what most would consider important information. But what needs identifying are themes over time, and significant questionable decisions. Studying this phenomenon must resist jumping to conclusions with too little supporting data, or like the Reporters cited above, we’ll find ourselves just reinforcing our initial anticipated conclusions.
This needs to be professionally undertaken. I doubt there are individuals with the time and resources to do it. Perhaps a professional organization or University researcher would consider media bias (or whatever the title) worthwhile research related to political science or journalism. Fundamentally it might show how fragile democracy really is, and lead to ways to strengthen it.

Alan says, " I have to say though that refining the oil here in Canada does sound interesting ( if viable)."

Very true, it is much better but it would have to be done in New Brunswick. There are several issues in building the refinery here in Alberta.

Aside from the obvious impossibility of getting the Alberta NDP to green light the project. The problems are:
1) Many multi-billions to built it. Who pays for it?
2) Refineries produce many products, some extremely volatile, such as naphtha. So, how do they get shipped, pipeline? Back to the pipeline issue again. Train? High test fuel shipped on two rails at high speed. A disaster in motion. Truck? Same issue and very expensive.

Refineries are built near major population settled areas specifically because of shipping reasons.

Building a refinery in Alberta would be nonviable, but then Tommie is a leftie politician and doesn’t think things through.

40 pieces of ID to prove you can vote in Canada! Ok, so students have to show Student ID cards or health cards or drivers’ licences., or lease agreement…Ms. May et al, where’s the problem? And new Canadians can’t provide identification such as Visas, Landed Immigrant status documentation etc,and Aboriginal Canadians don’t have some kind of card, such as health cards, treaty cards. Every day I’m expected to show some ID for something, my ID for vehicle registration, to receive health care, renew my licence plate, and on and on. What’s the problem with these new regulations? I don’t get it.

Muclair is against line 9 as far as I last heard. According to Bloc Muclair says he is absolutely against it in French but is more obscure about it in his English media comments.
Regardless, I believe he has implied that Alberta oil sands should be refined in Alberta and then possibly be transported by pipeline. That is likely all just a smoke screen as a new refinery is unlikely to ever make it through an NDP environmental assessment. I have to say though that refining the oil here in Canada does sound interesting ( if viable).

Rick, if Tommie is opposed to Line 9 and he is against exporting 40,000 jobs (implying that keeping the oil here in Canada is the way to keep those jobs), do you know if he wants to build a refinery here in Alberta or is he being the usual hypocritical left wing politician?

Peter Netterville said: “That is what line 9 is for, to pipe the bitumen from Alberta to the New Brunswick plant. However, I am unsure what Mulcair’s position is on line 9.” Tommie the Commie is opposed to it, because Quebec is.

Justin thinks we only go to war when we know we will win? bwahahaha And, in case these lefties haven’t noticed, the Loonie has fallen to $0.76/US$ because….the price of oil has halved. Tar sands and other oil cos are laying off workers in droves. Wake up, Justinpoo, Canada’s economy is built on resources, not sodomite pride.

Evelin, then you’re probably aware of the coverage provided over the last 24 hours.
In terms of the campaign coverage, would you say, for example, that the CBC and Globe and Mail were MORE balanced in their treatment of the leaders, or LESS balanced, than “the Rebel”?

Terry: CBC TV, CTV TV (both out of various Cities), Global TV, Strange one like Huffington, and several City newspapers, Google News. It’s too depressing as it is !! But enough to see dirty tricks, false information, censorship, etc. I suppose they all have their right to do that, but not if they represent themselves to be an objective news source. A “century” ago when Earl Cameron read the CBC News, he gave you “objective reporting” that one could trust, and I think people did trust the CBC. When he wanted to express his opinion on a story, he had to do that at the end of the broadcast in a segment specifically for that where he stated that these were his personal opinions. That “experiment” in broadcasting didn’t last long and since his time, all News seems to come across as the announcer’s or station’s opinion, backed up by data selected by the News department (or their Corporate office) to support that opinion (Confirmation Bias). Essentially, most News Media appear to judge what is worth knowing and interpret it for us. Our role is to learn what they are teaching us. That’s a lot of power to give a News Department.
Bottom line is that we could stay as we are with individual biased News organizations, if the public was aware of how News reporting really works. But I think that many still assume that what the CBC or CTV reports must be the objective truth rather than someone’s point of view.
And that’s just my point of view. :)

I assumed , perhaps incorrectly, that Mulcair’s comment about exporting 40,000 jobs by allowing Keystone meant that the NDP wants to have the oil sands oil refined in Canada. Sounds nice but what is the chance of that ever happening? If the NDP truly supports the domestic refinement , Harper should take them up on their position and seek the implementation ( if viable).
If the the NDP do not support the domestic refinement then I have no idea what Muclair was talking about and he should be challenged on same.

Evelin, I think it would make for very interesting reading too as I enjoy reading politics, but I have a feeling that my situation is a lot like many. I usually average read a few hundred pages a day related to my work and tend not to have too much more “oomph” to read too much more when I get home.

Peter:
You wrote: “The truth always lays somewhere in the middle, which is why we need the right represented as well, so people can read both the right side and the left side and decide for themselves where in the middle the truth lays.” Exactly. And that’s what Professional Journalism is supposed to do. I would think that a book tracing and critically assessing the events and activities of the News Media during this campaign would make a great read.